


Gilded Cage

by HonestMistake



Series: Fills for Chocobrosweek [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: A Happy Ending Depending On How You Look At It, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, At Least As Far As The Main Characters Are Concerned, Fishing, Kidnapping, M/M, Moogle Chocobo Carnival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 02:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12355146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HonestMistake/pseuds/HonestMistake
Summary: It's the last day of the Moogle Chocobo Carnival and Carbuncle's not ready to let it end.





	Gilded Cage

The Carnival ticket shines in the darkness of the tent twinkling like a star had been plucked from the sky and crushed and sprinkled over a piece of paper. It’s warm in his hands, the smell of the sea, sunshine, and sweet treats wafting off of it. His times at the Carnival were coming to an end tonight, Carbuncle was only able to keep up a portal between the waking world and the dreaming world for so long before he lost too much energy to keep it open. He lets some of his magic flow into the ticket, closing his eyes against the glare as it grows brighter and brighter until the brightness suddenly fades into normal light. 

He blinks away the stars in his vision no longer seated in his bedroll in the tent, instead he’s standing on a dock in Altissia. Confetti flies around him carried on the wind as it falls out of the sky and his eyes are drawn to the chocobo and moogle decorations spilling out over the streets. The air is filled with the scent of salt and frying dough as people mill about in silly costumes and argue about which is better moogles or chocobos.

Carbuncle twists round his legs like a cat trilling up at him as his phone dings with a message. ‘It’s our last day Noctis, have some fun.’

“Come on Carbuncle, let’s go win ourselves a new rod.” Noctis grins as he walks through the press of bodies his eyes shining with the determination to win. 

He stops at the café and eats a Kupoberry Cheesecake letting the enchantment wash over him before he catches a gondola to the Gondola Marina, which was quickly becoming a favorite spot of his, where he could stand by himself away from the noise and the crowds and fish to his heart’s content. He stands at the edge of the little dock and lets his line fly allowing himself to relax as he waits for the fish to bite. Hours pass with him chatting at Carbuncle between bites releasing his fish back into the ocean after he collects their tags. He stops after he’d caught and released back into the ocean enough fish to feed a small village, a bit disappointed that mostly reeled in a few small fry winning a few medallions and spools of line but no rod.

He looked down at Carbuncle with a grin. “I think maybe I should give it a break what do you think Carbuncle, should I try my luck again after a few trips ‘round the track?”

Carbuncle nodded as his phone dinged and he checked the message. ‘You should do everything, this is the last chance we’ll have to play like this. I should be able to slow down the day a bit so you can stay a little longer.’

“Alright let’s hit the races.” Noctis yelled as he ran to the gondolas. 

The races are a blast and just the thing he needs to get his energy back up. Sitting on top of his chocobo at the beginning of the track he feels invincible. He chases after his own best time and falls into the water a few times laughing as he resurfaces soaking wet. He beats his best time twice over and comes out of the racing track a few medallions richer. Soft kweh’s draw his attention to the chocobo petting zoo and feeding ground right next to the track and he walks over picking up the complimentary greens offered to the visitors. He feeds the chocobos and hugs one pressing his face into it's side and smiling at the feel of the feathers tickling his cheeks.

“Prompto would love this, he loves chocobos and he’d probably kick my ass at that shooting game.” Noctis says softly as he pets a baby chocobo running his fingers through the downy feathers and scratching under its chin. The chocobo kweh’ed and moved its head forcing him to scratch the back of its neck too. 

“Actually, now that I think about it everyone would love this.” Noctis says as he stands from his crouch, the baby chocobo squawking angrily at him as the petting stopped. “Ignis would love the food, he’d figure out how to replicate it perfectly after one bite. Gladio would love to get one of those moogle costumes for Iris and he’d love fighting in the arena. I’m having a great time Carbuncle but it’d be even more fun if they were here with me. I know you told me that I’m the only one you can bring here, but it’d be amazing to share this place with them.”

Carbuncle warbles up at him, his phone dinging at the same time with a new message. ‘Aren’t you having plenty of fun with me?’

“Yeah I am Carbuncle but carnivals are more fun when you’re with the people you love. Everything’s so much fun and the fireworks show is so romantic I want to share it with them. Whenever I do anything I end up thinking about one of them, like when I’m eating those fancy deserts it’s like I can hear Ignis in my head trying to explain what goes into making them. When I do the photo contest I end up thinking about how much better it’d be better Prompto teasing me as we compare how our pictures turn out. When I fight in the arena I keep expecting Gladio to watch my back. It’s not that I don’t like you I just wish they could be here too, they’d probably love you as much as I do.” 

He shakes his head and smiles down at Carbuncle. “And would you listen to me getting all sad when we’ve only got a few hours left to enjoy ourselves let’s get back to fishing, hopefully we’ll catch something good this time.”

He heads back to the Gondola Marina with Carbuncle following behind him and gets back to fishing. He basks in the light reeling in fish after fish that only have low tags until the sun grows fat and red over the water and a tug on the line puts up a bigger fight than expected. He fights long and hard with his catch every second he feels the tension let up he reels it in. His jaw drops as he pulls up his catch and see’s the A tag pinned to its fin. Euphoria floods through him his hands shaking as he pulls up the fish with his hook. 

“Check it out! Who’s puny now!” His voice is breathy with a bout of excited laughter as he holds up the prizewinning Scorpion Grouper. His excitement dies quickly once he looks behind him after a second of silence that’s usually filled by the peanut gallery and sees no one standing there but Carbuncle. His laughter fades into a sigh. “Not quite as satisfying with no one to brag to.”

Carbuncle hops onto his shoulders and nuzzles the side of his face his phone as a new message pops ups on his phone. He pulls it out of his pocket and reads Carbuncles reply. ‘You really miss them. Would you want to stay here with me if they could stay with you too?’

“I wish I could Carbuncle but I can’t just stay here forever even if you could bring them along. I have a duty to my people, I need to stop the Empire and take back the Crystal. I need to be the King my father raised me to be.” He leans down and pets Carbuncle on the head letting his hand sink into the silky soft fur.

His phone chirps as Carbuncle does. ‘Do you want to know a secret?’ 

“You have secrets Carbuncle? I thought you told me everything.” Noctis asks with a little teasing chide in his voice.

His phone chirps twice in quick succession drawing his attention back to it. ‘I can bring them here but they wouldn’t be able to get back to the real world and it takes a lot of power and a magical conduit strong enough to bridge the gap between worlds.’

The second message reads. ‘Did you know that you’re a powerful magical conduit Noctis?’

“No Carbuncle you can’t keep me stuck here! Not even if you brought them here.” Noctis shouted as he jumped backing away from Carbuncle even though he knew it was useless, Carbuncle controlled this entire world. 

‘It’s better to be a bird in a cage than a sacrifice on an altar. You don’t know what they have planned for you. You don’t know how much they’ll make you suffer. You’ll face desolation and loneliness and agony beyond what any mortal should endure. They’ll break you and make you into their perfect weapon but I won’t let them.’

‘They never told me their plans, but I found them out anyway, and I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll always protect you even if I have to protect you from the Six. I just want you to be safe and happy. So you’ll stay here with me and I’ll bring them here and they can play with us too. Just think of how good it will be, no more sorrow, no more loss, no more sadness, no more death, just fun and games forever.’ Carbuncle rested his paws against Noctis’ shoulders and pushed his ruby horn against the center of Noctis’ forehead. 

Noctis can’t move, he can’t even speak, something Carbuncle’s done is making him feel like he’s being petrified. A low whine is all that can exit his mouth as tears gather in his eyes and spill over his cheeks.

“No more tears Noctis, it’ll be alright. Just let me in and I’ll make everything perfect.” Carbuncle’s voice rings through his head in a way that’s soothing even at it beats against the walls of his mind like a steady drum. “Just give in and I’ll make it so you never have to hurt again.”

It feels like it’s lasted for weeks, but it’s probably only seconds before the dam breaks and he fades into the shadows of his own mind with Carbuncles voice ringing out telling him that everything’s going to be perfect now.

Carbuncle sways on his borrowed legs as he tries to make his way outside the tent without giving himself away. He would have preferred to walk on his own paws, two legs were so inefficient, but Noctis is the conduit he needs now. A hand grips his arm and pulls down and Carbuncle unsteady as he is collapses down beside Prompto. The blonde wraps him up in his arms pressing his face against Carbuncles borrowed chest. “Come on Noct you’re never up this early, come back to bed before Ignis makes us do chores or something.” 

He presses Noctis’ lips against Prompto’s head drawing on Noctis’ dreams of having him close as he lets the power just barely contained in the mortal King’s body loose. Prompto gasps awake as magic burns through him, dissolving him into dream dust in his arms and fading to nothing at all as his body is swept away into the dream world. He feels the boost in power flow over him signaling Prompto’s arrival into the dream and tries to stand again. This time getting to his feet is a little easier with both Noctis and Prompto’s memories of walking around to draw on.

“Are you alright Noct, is your back acting up again?” Gladio asks as he lets his last pushup bring him to his feet.

“Yeah, could you help me get to my chair?” Carbuncle’s voice turns pained as he tries to lure in his next catch.

“Must be bad if you’re willing to ask.” Gladio says as he leans down picking Noctis up in a bridal carry.

Carbuncle wrapped his arms around Gladio’s neck and drags him down pressing their lips together before Gladio can realize that something is wrong. His power floods through them bolstered by Noctis’ magic and Gladio fades into dream dust. Carbuncle falls with a gasp, nothing there to support him, and looks up to see a dagger in his face Ignis’ eyes burning into him from over the flash of the blade.

“What have you done with them?” Ignis’ voice is low and dangerous, his hands shaking he lowers the blade to Noctis’ throat.

“Careful Ignis you don’t want to hurt Noctis now do you?” Carbuncle asks his voice sounding to Ignis’ ears frighteningly casual. 

The daggers vanish into Noctis’ magic and Carbuncle kicks out at Ignis’ feet drawing on the skills of his dreamers to send him falling to the ground. He rolled over on top of Ignis’ body and pressed their lips together. As with Prompto and Gladio they fade into dream dust together and the dust fades away in the light of the rising sun.

 

“Don’t you feel like we’re missing something important?” Noctis asks as he stops in the middle of the path his eyes drawn back to the Gondola Marina. Something that he could almost remember was nagging at the edge of his mind. Carbuncle tugged at his ear and he leaned away from the pressure, his leaning doing absolutely nothing as Carbuncle was seated on his shoulder.

“Yeah we’re gonna miss the fireworks show if we just stand here talking.” Prompto whines pulling on his hand to get him to walk forward. He stops suddenly his eyes drawn to a poster hanging on one of the walls. His hand tightens over Noctis’ as he drags him over to look at it with a squeal, he would probalby try to claim wasn’t girly assuming that he even realized he made it. “Noctis look, there’s gonna be an Assassins Creed Festival in Lestallum. We have to go!”

“Yeah, there’s no way we’re missing this.” Noctis says as he plucked the poster up off of the wall. “I love those games, this is gonna be so much fun!”

“If we’re going to Lestallum again I’m taking off my shirt.” Gladio bumped past him shooting him one of his ‘charming’ grins.

“I for one have no problem with that big guy.” Prompto winks in Gladio’s direction his fingers coming up that two gun pose.

“Are you certain you’re feeling well Noct?” Ignis asks him as they start walking again.

Noctis looks back to the Gondola Marina for a moment before shaking his head and scratching Carbuncle between the ears. “Yeah, it was probably nothing anyway.”


End file.
